Record-breaking buyout in the works

DALLAS, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A private equity group is close acquiring the TXU Corp., a Texas utility, for a record-breaking $45 billion, The New York Times reported.

The group is led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the Texas Pacific Group, the Times reported. The takeover, if approved by TXU's board, would be the biggest leverage buyout ever.

Environmental advocates have criticized TXU for its aggressive defense of coal as the means to provide electricity and its proposal to build 11 coal-fired power plants in Texas.

"It's a pretty dramatic development because TXU's position in electricity in Texas is controversial and uncertain," Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy expert at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University told the Times.